chapel hill

On the surface, Kooley High and G Yamazawa are simply two of the best hip-hop acts to emerge from the Raleigh-Durham area. But look closer, and they represent two distinct elements of the NC hip-hop scene — G embodying the area's constant winds of change, Kooley High representing the enduring spirit of the Little Brother area. In less than two weeks, they play Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh together, but not before G hits the stage at Cat's Cradle on Dumbfoundead's Yikes! Tour, which he has been a part of for a number of west coast dates already this year. Ahead of his appearance on the pod next week, we talk about his whirlwind last 12 months starting with the "North Cack" video, then interview The Sinopsis about all things Kooley High — the new album's title, 9th Wonder's involvement, and which NBA team Kooley High most resembles. It's a fun one. Enjoy!

Music:

J.K. The Reaper - "City Boy" (from his new album, Digital Tears) Cameron Butler - "Woah" Sinopsis - "Middle East Coastin.Rx" King Mez - "King's Khrysis" ft. Phonte

With Chapel Hill’s third annual hip-hop festival Hillmatic fast approaching this Friday and Saturday, we took to the Runaway Pod Network airwaves with a special BONUS POD featuring festival organizers Kevin Thomas and Shaw Hargett, also known as Kaze and Bumrush. Both long-time curators and collaborators in the Chapel Hill scene, Thomas and Hargett are passionate about making sure that Chapel Hill’s pivotal place in the history of North Carolina hip-hop — including epic beat battles and MC showcases that featured the likes of 9th Wonder, Khrysis, Phonte and J Cole — is not forgotten. As the sole “college town” in the Chapel Hill-Raleigh-Durham trifecta, they’ve got an uphill climb. But as our interview shows, they’re more than well-equipped for the grind.

To round out the show, Holland, Ryan and Alex cover other North Carolina festival news that came out over the past week, including an expanded lineup for Moogfest, a new date, headliners and major venue for Art Of Cool (Nas!), and how those moves affect the young but growing Beats N Bars hip-hop festival that runs every September in Durham.

Get tickets to Hillmatic here: https://www.etix.com/ticket/c/5DC4925C79D60FBB105C9DB9971D74F5/2-day-pass

WE’RE BACK!

Coming off our brief hiatus, we jump into the insane number of things that happened since Episode 10, including Rapsody and NC hip-hop in general on NETFLIX(!!) and the arrival of the new Kooley High album, “Never Come Down.” We’re also talking to mixing engineer Brian Kidd, who is a living testament to the power of music. Not only did an early 2000’s Consequence mixtape, and the song “I See Now,” featuring Kanye West and Little Brother, strengthen his resolve to one day work in music, it literally inspired him to move to North Carolina to see what 9th Wonder and the rest of the Justus League was getting up to. In our interview with Brian, he talks about working for free when you’re starting out, shooting his shot on Twitter when he first arrived in NC, his thoughts on the new Kooley High album, and much more.

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NEW ON THE SITE THIS WEEK!

Contributors Jimmy Branley and Alex Yllanes reported back after seeing Big K.R.I.T., Ty Dolla $ign and others at The Ritz in Raleigh: http://www.superempty.com/news/2018/4/2/a-night-at-the-ritz-with-big-krit-friends

Ace Henderson — rapper, friend of Super Empty, and thoughtful human being — shares his unique perspective on the eternal question of quantity versus quality: http://www.superempty.com/news/2018/4/4/stop-and-listen-to-the-flowers

And don’t forget, tomorrow (4/5) we have a BONUS POD dropping, with Kaze and Shaw Hargett of Hillmatic, the two-day hip-hop festival celebrating its third year in Chapel Hill this weekend. We had an awesome time recording with them. As always, leave a review, rate us, or at the very least, get on Twitter and debate us. See you next week!

Whether its Drake giving away a cool million in Miami or your local MC rapping to the camera in his neighborhood, how important are music videos in 2018? And what hurdles keep rappers from doing them? Joined by our videographer friend Mandy from The Rundown, as well as special guest and renowned hip-hop artist Jason Clary, we delve into the topic of rap music videos, from Drake’s “God’s Plan” to G Yamazawa’s “North Cack.” Then, it’s a trip down NC hip-hop memory lane as we talk to Jason about his artwork for Kooley High, how he first met Rapsody through basketball, if the visual imagery around hip-hop has gotten more creative in recent years, and much more. Last but not least, we’re blessed with a hot take from SE Show regular Jimmy Branley about Chance, Childish, and giving your fans false hope.

The NCAA tournament is here, and with it has come a new Twitter poll tournament called Kanye Madness, which seeds 64 of Kanye’s best songs and pits them against one another for the title. Justin, Ryan and Alex highlight the best and worst seedings, prognosticate about exciting first round matchups, and pick their teams to win it all. The squad then discusses the newest signee to G.O.O.D. Music, the trap-centric, Chicago-based Valee, whose signing marks a major sonic turning point in the lifetime of a label that came up on Kanye, Cudi, Common and Big Sean. Last but not least, Young Bull frontman Tahmique Cameron joins us in the store to tell us stories from home and on the road, from burning and labeling CD’s backstage at their debut show to maybe performing for Malia Obama at Harvard.

On Episode 8 of The Super Empty Show, Justin honors the legacy of Canadian battle rap champion Bender, who passed away at the age of 37 last week; the guys discuss the surprise release of a new rap album from some guy named Phonte Coleman; and Raleigh hip-hop creatives and social media ICONS Headgraphix and Chubbz join us to cover going viral and the Paul brothers (25:05), the Bruh phenomenon of 2014 (27:45), Chubbz' interview show On The Radar (30:00), exciting up-and-coming NC acts like Cloudy Nueve (34:20), the disconnect between old and new NC hip-hop (37:30), what it'll take for NC to pop (43:00), and the creative endeavors that Chubbz and Headgraphix have on the way, including short films and new music (48:30).

With last week’s guest and local rap critic Eric Tullis lingering somewhere in the background, and surrounded by piles of clothing from a warehouse sale event in the RUNAWAY store earlier that day, Ryan, Justin and Alex talk about the buzz (started by Eric) that Art of Cool may be for sale, and explain why the festival is so great and why it needs to stay in Durham. Then Ryan and Justin talk to up-and-coming Triangle rapper Crosby, who just dropped an impressive new album last week. Topics include: focusing on recording more than shows, getting creative with his voice, how he met regular production collaborator Lentra, and his early mixtape that he wisely called Thrill City.

This week on the Super Empty Show, we talk to a friend who has been in the Triangle music scene for more than twice as long as any of us, an authoritative voice on hip-hop culture in North Carolina, and a highly opinionated Durhamite ever since attending NCCU grad school in the early 2000’s, Eric Tullis. We cover a number of topics that should be near and dear to any hip-hop fan in the RDU area: Eric’s start at Indy Week in 2004 and how that period, around Little Brother’s rise to prominence, compares to today; DJ Merlin’s early passing; working at the NC Central student paper with Phonte; the prospects of a Little Brother reunion; his squabbles with the way we conducted our interview with a major radio DJ; and Urban Lou, an artist he may or may not be managing, who may or may not be real.

In a new profile with Esquire, Donald Glover draws a comparison between himself and Tupac Shakur. With the second season of Atlanta kicking off in just a couple weeks, Justin, Alex and Ryan explore the merits of that comparison, as well as the actor/musician/superhuman’s similarities to Kanye West. Then Durham rapper Danny Blaze drops by to give us some of his renowned work stories, explain his 30-tweet diatribes from his jobs, how he met 9th Wonder and what his goals are for this year. The show closes with a group discussion about the newest Jamla release, a single from Elzhi and Khrysis for their upcoming album, Jericho Jackson.

After previewing a groovy new collaboration between Durham producer Treee City and our guest from last week, rapper Ace Henderson (2:50), and then quickly perusing the tracklist on the newly unveiled, TDE-curated Black Panther soundtrack (3:50), Ryan and Justin sit down with K97.5 radio host Miriam Tolbert a.k.a. Mir.I.Am to talk about the genesis of Carolina Waves radio (10:15), the most common feedback she gives to indie artists (17:00), and not getting discouraged by criticisms (23:15). Finally SE. contributor Jimmy Branley joins the show to defend his assertion on the site this week that “Drake is bored” (33:30).

Following a week in which Migos released its third album in nearly three years on the same day that L.A. producer/rapper Evidence dropped his first album since 2011, Justin, Ryan and Holland consider just how much has changed in seven years (5:00); Raleigh rapper Ace Henderson drops by to discuss the eternal quality vs. quantity debate that spans from international to local art (19:30); South Carolina cultural curator and SE contributor KJ Kearney calls in to discuss his new piece for the website (44:00).

Along with special guest Pat Junior, Ryan and Justin react to the news that Kooley High and 9th Wonder’s long-awaited full-length album, “Never Come Down,” is finally coming this March (0:00), Pat voices his concerns about the future of SoundCloud (0:00), and Justin and Ryan investigate whether the moment for U.K. Grime has passed in America (0:00). If you enjoy the show, please rate, review, and subscribe. Long Live LimeWire!

Super Empty editor Ryan Cocca and Runaway's Justin Laidlaw explore the fake “Kendrick vs. Trump” halftime show story and other shortcomings of the hip-hop media establishment (2:45), encyclopedic rap scholar and SE. contributor Jonathan Smith stops by to add some context to the disappointing, homophobic comments made on Instagram by Nipsey Hussle (13:35), and the group discusses the latest installment from the TDE-produced Black Panther soundtrack, “King’s Dead,” which awkwardly doubled as the lead single for Jay Rock’s new album (22:30).